A sleepy stock didn't hold back DeWolfe Cos.' acquisition streak last year.
Richard B. DeWolfe, chairman and chief executive of DeWolfe Cos., has been focusing on expanding the firm's markets. (Globe File Photo)
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DeWolfe, already the largest residential real estate company in New England, continued to buy smaller rivals around the region in 1999. Its two biggest wins: JW Riker Real Estate, the biggest home-buying and selling agency in Rhode Island, and Mark Stimson Associates, Maine's dominant residential real estate firm.
''We had a focus on expanding our market area last year,'' said Paul Harrington, president and chief operating officer of Lexington-based DeWolfe. ''We needed to get into some of the other strong markets that we were not in.''
DeWolfe ranked number 22 on The Globe 100 list for 1999, down from number six in 1998, and had the 11th-best return on equity of all publicly traded Bay State companies, at 32.4 percent.
Its revenues grew 32 percent, to $178.8 million, buoyed by the strong economy and fast-rising home prices. Harrington said the number of home sales was flat in some areas and up as much as 10 percent in others. Prices, however, were up a brisk 5 percent to 10 percent in just one year.
After 50 years in business, DeWolfe is still showing it's on a growth path. The company has launched a Web business and aims to offer one-stop shopping to home buyers, from mortgage finance to insurance. Those newer operations, Harrington said, ''have been become, more and more, a bigger part of the profitability of the company.''
One of DeWolfe's challenges is to boost its share price. In 1999, the stock slid 11 percent and never made it over $8. Part of the problem, observers say, is getting lumped in with real estate investment trusts - even though DeWolfe is not a REIT and owns no property.
Stock market volatility and rising interest rates could slow home buying this year, and almost certainly will within three years, Harrington said. Even in the past six weeks, he said, ''People are less certain about what to do.''
BETH HEALY
Company of year
